Swear in a private Xbox One Skype call, get banned from Xbox Live

The Xbox One is finally here, and with it begins an era of bug-free gaming and flawless online services. Actually, only the first part of that is correct. In the latest hiccup surrounding the launch of the Xbox One, owners are reporting that after using some salty language in Skype calls and gameplay videos, they have been banned from the apps.

The Xbox One subreddit and the official Xbox forums are starting to collect complaints from users who were in private Skype calls where they cursed only to later find they had been temporarily banned from Skype on the Xbox. The error message advises them to “Choose something else to play” because of their past behavior. The same goes for Microsoft’s upload Studio, which is used to share gameplay videos, though reports of this are currently less common.

According to affected users, the bans seem to be lifted after 24 hours, but what gives? Is Microsoft forging ahead into a more puritanical era of gaming? While it might be nice to play Xbox Live without having your mother’s moral turpitude discussed on a regular basis, this is probably a mistake. The error message has some odd syntax and wording, so it might have been intended for use in games when harassment or abuse has taken place.

Temporarily banner gamers who contacted Microsoft about the bans were told their Live accounts were in good standing. Indeed, there is nothing in the Xbox terms that prohibits mature language in Skype or gameplay videos. Still, it raises the question, how closely is Microsoft listening to what you say?

A lot of games contain some pretty adult language too. Microsoft has yet to respond to the issue, but you might want to be on your best behavior in the meantime.